For most adults, a normal resting heart rate is between 60 to 100 beats per minute (bpm). But if you're toward the top end of this range, or above it, you'll want to lower it. Show
It is possible to have a heart rate that's too low, but generally, the lower your resting heart rate, the healthier you are. In fact, well-trained athletes and highly-active adults are often in the 40 to 50 bpm range. If your resting heart rate is too high, here are some of the best strategies to lower it over time, as well as tips to calm it down in the moment. How to lower your heart rate over timeKristin Dean, MD, a board-certified physician at Doctor On Demand, says when your heart beats fewer times each minute, it is more efficient and doesn't have to work as hard to pump blood through the body. "Studies have shown that a lower overall workload for your heart is a good thing for heart health long-term," Dean says. "Higher heart rates may be associated with an increased risk of heart attacks or strokes, as seen in the Copenhagen Male Study." Additionally, a higher resting heart rate has been associated with increased risk of diabetes and heart disease leading to death, says Maheer Gandhavadi, MD, Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology with Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group. You can lower your resting heart rate by making a few lifestyle changes. Dean says some of the best ways include:
How to lower your heart rate in the momentAnxiety and stress can also cause an increased heart rate, both over time and in the moment. According to Harvard Medical School, generalized anxiety disorder may lead to higher rates of heart attacks and cardiac injuries. There are a few common strategies that can help manage anxiety over time and lower your heart rate to a normal resting number in the moment. Dean and Gandhavadi suggest:
If anxiety and stress is a regular part of your life, you should also minimize your use of caffeine and potentially meet with a therapist to find the strategies that work for you to manage stress. If you have a consistently elevated resting heart rate, a doctor's visit is necessary. Together, you can create a personalized plan for improving your cardiac health. Updated: 01/27/2022 If your heart is racing as you’re sitting reading this article, it’s possible your body is trying to tell you something. A high resting heart rate, or a heart rate of more than 100 beats per minute, means your heart is working extra hard to pump blood through your body. And, that extra effort could result in a wide range of negative effects on your overall health, including feelings of dizziness and fatigue – and most seriously – blood clots, heart failure and, in rare cases, sudden death. Normal resting heart rate is anywhere between 60 and 100 beats per minute, and it’s simple to check how fast yours is beating. While idle, hold your pointer and middle finger between your bone and tendon on the thumb side on your wrist until you feel your pulse, and count the number of beats for a minute – that is your resting heart rate. Certain aspects of someone’s resting heart rate are directly connected to uncontrollable factors, such as age and genetics, however there are certain actions that be taken to help decrease heart rate and improve overall wellbeing for those whose resting heart rate is above normal. Here are six proven ways to lower your resting heart rate:
1. Stay Out of the Heat:The warmer the temperature, the faster your heart beats. This is because your heart is working quickly to pump blood to the surface of your skin, produce sweat and cool off the body. To ensure your heart isn’t beating on overdrive, stay in cool, comfortable places when possible and remember to stay well hydrated. 2. Exercise Frequently:Exercise is great for your health for many reasons – and securing a normal resting heart rate is one of them. While it might seem counterintuitive since your heart rate increases while you’re exercising, what you’re actually doing every time you’re working out is training your heart to be stronger and more efficient at pumping blood. Then, when you’re in rest mode, your heart is more easily able to maintain a normal heart rate. 3. Add More Fish to Your Diet:Similarly to exercising, maintaining a healthy diet is beneficial to each of us for many reasons. For one, incorporating more fish has been associated with lower resting heart rates, according to a study from the American Heart Association. Don’t enjoy eating fish? Talk a doctor about taking fish oil supplements, which may have positive effects on heart rate as well. 4. Lessen the Stress:The higher our stress level, the higher our heart rates. For many people, stress can feel inevitable. Perhaps you’re trying to balance work and home life, but can never seem to find enough time to get it all accomplished. A quick and simple way to begin to de-stress is to designate a block of time each day to disconnect from your cell phone and other electronic devices. This frees up time to be productive and gives you an opportunity to declutter your mind and reprioritize. Another simple de-stressing tip is to practice meditation to relax the mind. 5. Be Mindful of Your Breathing:On the topic of medication, another quick and easy way to lower your heart rate is to practice mindful breathing exercises. Inhale slowly for five seconds and then exhale slowly for 15 seconds. Try dedicating five minutes to this each day. 6. Nix the Cigarettes:It might come as no surprise that smoking cigarettes has countless negative effects on a person’s health. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, this includes an increased risk for coronary heart disease, stroke and lung and other cancers. Additionally, tobacco products have been shown to increase resting heart rates. When your body consumes nicotine, your veins and arteries constrict, and your heart has to then put in that extra work to pump blood. If you’re a smoker, the good news is quitting can decrease your resting heart rate within just 24 hours – so the sooner you can nix the cigarettes – the sooner you’ll begin to see results. Next Steps & Resources:The material provided through HealthU is intended to be used as general information only and should not replace the advice of your physician. Always consult your physician for individual care.
“The subject of athletics has not been understood until recently; nor has the best method of training been investigated,” Dr. Sargent told a Harvard audience on March 6, 1896. Dr. Sargent seems to be suggesting that everything about athletic training was now settled. 121 years later, however, there is still so much to learn about our amazing bodies, and how to maximize what they can do. One useful measure is resting heart rate (RHR). A low RHR (along with optimal SpO2) is the hallmark of cardio health. RHR is just what it sounds like, the measure of how many times your heart beats (per minute) when you are at rest. (as opposed to heart rate variability (HRV), which measures the variation between beats.) You can measure it with wearable technology or kick it old school (2 fingers at the neck) Either way, knowing your baseline RHR will help you monitor progress, and identify problems, before other symptoms emerge. A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges from 60 to 90. When it comes to RHR, it important to know how to lower resting heart rate. Elite athletes have RHR in the 50s, 40s, even 30s. High RHR is associated with an increase in risk of death. But can you change your RHR? If so, how? And by how much? How Can You Change Your Resting Heart Rate?The good news? Yes, you can lower your resting heart rate. The 3 best ways to reduce your RHR?
(Need help remembering? Picture yourself riding a bike. (exercise) Your stress melts away. (relaxation) You’re so stress-free you fall into a deep slumber. (sleep.) Exercise“It is very possible and even common to lower your resting heart rate through exercise,” says Tyler Spraul, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Head Trainer at Exercise.com. “The type of exercise is not important, as long as you are challenging your cardiovascular system with your workouts.” The 4 most Important types of exercise for health include strengthening, stretching, balance, and aerobic exercises. And exercise doesn’t just lower your RHR. Harvard Medical School reminds us that exercise will also ward off depression, enhance your sex life, sharpen your wits, and improve your sleep. “As you train your cardiovascular system,” Spraul explains, “you will increase its efficiency and capacity. What ends up happening is that your heart is able to do more work with less effort (pump more blood throughout your system while requiring less energy and exertion to do so), so your resting heart rate goes down.“ It’s important to find activities you like, and to mix it up, to avoid boredom and make sure you’re working all parts of your body. Interval training (alternating intensive workouts with periods of rest) is an especially effective way to lower your RHR. SleepSleep is emerging as a new frontier of health, with implications for cardio health, cognition, mood and even mortality. That’s right, a good night’s sleep over time can forestall death. Disturbed sleep negatively impacts heart health and can increase RHR. Sleep has been shown to promote cardiac health and mood, which in turn has a protective function across all aspects of your health and performance. Sleep also protects against weight gain, which can increase your RHR. Relax!Whether we are resting, or stoked with adrenaline during a ‘fight or flight response’, our hearts are in play. Reduce stress, and your RHR will naturally fall. Increase stress? And it will rise, regardless of sleep and exercise. Stress in teens (measured by parental corporal punishment) was found to increase adolescent resting heart rate variability, while positive parenting helped improve RHR and HRV. Yet reducing stress is easier said than done. Some stress is beyond our control. But that makes it even more important to control what we can, and incorporate stress reduction as a daily component of our healthy lifestyle. These interventions are widely successful to reduce stress.
How Quickly and by How Much?A recent poster on Researchgate asked, “Is it possible to decrease the heart rate by 20 bpm in 6 months” The consensus? Yes, through exercise, but you need to be healthy to start, and work super hard. G. Filligoi of Sapienza University of Rome recommends the relaxation route: “You can decrease heart rate by respiration exercises, yoga, meditation. I would suggest some self-consciousness approach in order to reduce the anxiety, nervous stress, and similars.” Not everyone agrees it’s possible. “In my opinion,” says Oscar Fabregat-Andrés of MED Hospitales, “it is not possible to modulate baseline heart rate in such magnitude, because although exercise is able to regulate autonomic system, “vagal tone” necessary to reach this rate is not performed in 6 months.” Does Lowering your RHR Make you Healthy?If a low RHR is a sign of health, does that mean lowering your RHR automatically makes you healthy? No, but it’s evidence you’re on the right track. Measuring RHR is a safe, non-intrusive way to track the success of your fitness regime, and spot trouble early. “A low resting heart rate doesn’t necessarily lead to better health in and of itself,” says Spraul, “but it can be used more as an indicator of the effectiveness of your training methods.” This effectiveness can be positive, or not. “If you are doing workouts that challenge your cardiovascular system and your resting heart rate decreases over time,” he says, “that is a good sign that you are doing the right things.” But it’s important to measure it regularly, even, especially, if you are training hard. An unexpectedly elevated RHR can be a sign of overtraining. “Sometimes the resting heart rate can actually increase,” Spraul cautions, “which is a sign that you have over-stressed your body’s systems and may need to focus on better recovery or Back to the BasicsBack in 1896, Dr. Sargent wasn’t so far off the mark. “The modern idea of training,” he told his Harvard audience, “is to seek things “which will contribute to health and strength: diet, sleep, bathing, proper clothing and exercise.” “Exercise with energy,” he concluded, “to stimulate the heart and lungs and increase respiration and circulation.” Some things never change. Exercise stimulates the heart, in a good way. And RHR is a key measure of how well it works. |
Best exercise to lower resting heart rate
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